Thoughts on books, reading and publishing from the staff and friends of the Tattered Cover Book Store.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Meg Is Recommending:

First we had dogs underwater, then dogs shaking off water... so why not dogs soaking up the exhilarating no-holds-barred pleasure of a car ride?

Photographer Lara Jo Regan began her pet project as a calendar, but the response was overwhelming and absolute: Her photographs of the cruising canines, taken from incredible perspectives, with tongues hanging and ears flapping, became a global Internet sensation.

The energy of the photographs is impressive and visceral. In order to get these shots, Regan built a special light, which jutted out over the roof of the car, a harness that allowed her to lean out of the window, and various other contraptions to make the images come to life. This book will make you laugh out loud and want to share it with everyone you know. It s full speed happiness.

The best-selling author of Seven Days in the Art World now tells the story of the artists themselves how they move through the world, command credibility, and create iconic works.

33 Artists in 3 Acts offers unprecedented access to a dazzling range of artists, from international superstars to unheralded art teachers. Sarah Thornton's beautifully paced, fly-on-the-wall narratives include visits with Ai Weiwei before and after his imprisonment and Jeff Koons as he woos new customers in London, Frankfurt, and Abu Dhabi. Thornton meets Yayoi Kusama in her studio around the corner from the Tokyo asylum that she calls home. She snoops in Cindy Sherman s closet, hears about Andrea Fraser s psychotherapist, and spends quality time with Laurie Simmons, Carroll Dunham, and their daughters Lena and Grace.

Through these intimate scenes, 33 Artists in 3 Acts explores what it means to be a real artist in the real world. Divided into three cinematic "acts" politics, kinship, and craft it investigates artists' psyches, personas, politics, and social networks. Witnessing their crises and triumphs, Thornton turns a wry, analytical eye on their different answers and non-answers to the question "What is an artist?"

33 Artists in 3 Acts reveals the habits and attributes of successful artists, offering insight into the way these driven and inventive people play their game. In a time when more and more artists oversee the production of their work, rather than make it themselves, Thornton shows how an artist s radical vision and personal confidence can create audiences for their work, and examines the elevated role that artists occupy as essential figures in our culture.

In Dave Arnold's world, the shape of an ice cube, the sugars and acids in an apple, and the bubbles in a bottle of champagne are all ingredients to be measured, tested, and tweaked.

With Liquid Intelligence, the creative force at work in Booker & Dax, New York City s high-tech bar, brings readers behind the counter and into the lab. There, Arnold and his collaborators investigate temperature, carbonation, sugar concentration, and acidity in search of ways to enhance classic cocktails and invent new ones that revolutionize your expectations about what a drink can look and taste like.

Years of rigorous experimentation and study botched attempts and inspired solutions have yielded the recipes and techniques found in these pages. Featuring more than 120 recipes and nearly 450 color photographs, Liquid Intelligence begins with the simple how ice forms and how to make crystal-clear cubes in your own freezer and then progresses into advanced techniques like clarifying cloudy lime juice with enzymes, nitro-muddling fresh basil to prevent browning, and infusing vodka with coffee, orange, or peppercorns.

Practical tips for preparing drinks by the pitcher, making homemade sodas, and building a specialized bar in your own home are exactly what drink enthusiasts need to know. For devotees seeking the cutting edge, chapters on liquid nitrogen, chitosan/gellan washing, and the applications of a centrifuge expand the boundaries of traditional cocktail craft.

Arnold's book is the beginning of a new method of making drinks, a problem-solving approach grounded in attentive observation and creative techniques. Readers will learn how to extract the sweet flavor of peppers without the spice, why bottling certain drinks beforehand beats shaking them at the bar, and why quinine powder and succinic acid lead to the perfect gin and tonic. Liquid Intelligence is about satisfying your curiosity and refining your technique, from red-hot pokers to the elegance of an old-fashioned.

Whether you're in search of astounding drinks or a one-of-a-kind journey into the next generation of cocktail making, Liquid Intelligence is the ultimate standard one that no bartender or drink enthusiast should be without.